TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kleespies, Matthias
A1  - Feucht, Viktoria
A1  - Becker, Martin
A1  - Dierkes, Paul Wilhelm
T1  - Environmental education in zoos - exploring the impact of guided zoo tours on connection to nature and attitudes towards species conservation
T2  - Journal of zoological and botanical gardens
N2  - In recent decades, zoos have been increasingly transformed into education centers with the goal of raising awareness about environmental issues and providing environmental education. Probably the simplest and most widespread environmental education program in the zoo is the guided tour. This study therefore aims to test whether a one hour zoo tour has an influence on the participants’ connection to nature and attitude towards species conservation. For this purpose, 269 people who had voluntarily registered for a zoo tour were surveyed before and after the tour. In addition to the regular zoo tour, special themed tours and tours with animal feedings were included. The results show a positive increase in connection to nature and a strengthening of positive attitudes towards species conservation for all tour types. For nature connectedness, in particular, people with an initial high connection to nature benefitted from the special themed tours and the tours, including animal feedings. For attitudes towards species conservation, no difference was found between the tour types. The results prove the positive influence of a very simple environmental education program, even for people with a preexisting high level of connection to nature and positive attitude towards species conservation.
KW  - zoo education
KW  - guided zoo tours
KW  - environmental education
KW  - attitudes towards species conservation
KW  - connection to nature
KW  - nature connectedness
KW  - environmental attitudes
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/79609
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-796098
SN  - 2673-5636
N1  - This study was partly supported by the Opel-Zoo foundation professorship in zoo biology from the “von Opel Hessische Zoostiftung” and by the Verband der Zoologischen Gärten (VdZ).
VL  - 3
IS  - 1
SP  - 56
EP  - 68
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -